Understand and appreciate how consumers are faring when it comes to five key indexes we update each month:
Savings Index
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This is the total held in cash savings over time. This includes cash ISAs but excludes current accounts and all investment accounts (e.g. pensions, stocks & shares).
The index tracks the last 12 months.
The data is drawn from people using the Moneyhub platform.
Savings Capacity Index
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This is people’s net income minus all their normal monthly spending (essential and discretionary spending).
Essential spending is expenses such as mortgage/rent payments, utilities and grocery costs that you cannot easily vary each month. It is also known as non-discretionary spending.
Discretionary spending is everything else that is not essential spending. The key thing to note about discretionary spending is it has an element of choice - it may include items such as eating out, holidays, luxury goods, sports and hobbies.
The savings capacity is the actual amount a person has left over to put into savings, investments or a pension each month without changing any of their spending behaviour.
Savings capacity can increase due to factors like a pay rise or better budgeting; it can decrease due to factors like inflationary price rises and lifestyle changes that result in higher spending.
The index is the change in Savings Capacity over the last 12 months.
The data is drawn from people using the Moneyhub platform.
Essential Spending Index
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This is spending on essential expenses such as mortgage/rent payments, utilities and grocery costs that you cannot easily vary each month. It is also known as non-discretionary spending.
The index is the change in Essential Spending over the last 12 months.
The data is drawn from people using the Moneyhub platform.
Discretionary Spending Index
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This is spending on everything else that is not essential spending (those expenses such as mortgage/rent payments, utilities and grocery costs that you cannot easily vary each month). The key thing to note about discretionary spending is it has an element of choice, and may include spending on items such as eating out, holidays, luxury goods, sports and hobbies.
The index is the change in Discretionary Spending over the last 12 months.
The data is drawn from people using the Moneyhub platform.
Debt to Income Ratio Index
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This ratio is a person’s monthly debt payments divided by their monthly net income. Debt is defined as:
A mortgage payment.
Any loan repayments, secured or unsecured (including credit cards).
The index is the change in debt to income ratio over the last 12 months.
The data is drawn from people using the Moneyhub platform.
